Coming back after a long break

[Rachel 1]

[Reposted because I may have initially posted in the wrong area.]

Open to advice. 

It has been roughly 10 months since I had to leave the day trading environment due to work.  When I left, I was still in my education & training phase.  A change of position led to a change in hours, which made me miss out on the market completely.  Thankfully, my position recently has me work from home with a change of hours that do not impede on the market opening.

I am slowly getting back in. This past week, I have been watching The Premarket Show to get me refamiliarized. I am reorganizing my home office & computer rigs to accommodate, separate, & dedicate space to each work field. And I am watching the video classes posted on this site before I start watching others' live & recap trade videos. 

As for the practical training, should I go back to the DAS Simulator? Or should I move forward with a live account & utilize the simulator feature?

Thank you for any & all advice! I'm a bit nervous, a bit overwhelmed, but excited to move forward.

[Abiel 475]

Maybe it is a good idea for you to start in the sim and see how do you feel and what your results are. Then you will know if you keep paper trading or move forward to your real account. If moving to real account, start small and adjust accordingly to your results. 

Keep it green! 

[Carlos M. 232]

Hi Rachel, 

Is great that your able to have accommodating hours at work to allow you to get back into trading. I fully agree with Abiel starting a sim is a must. Plan for 3 months at least to get your feet back in the game. Then gage on your performance in sim to see if going live is the next step after doing well in sim. And of course, start very small at first.

Welcome back!

[Rachel 1]

Thank you both for your advice. I'll start practicing in the SIM either end of next week or early the week after. Looking forward to that phase. 

[Skye 28]

If I'm reading correctly you are talking about trading in Sim either way, so that's good. I would probably do the live account but trade in the sum until you are getting consistent results. The great news is that there are new really low fee structures for small accounts so you can start at a much lower risk than before, when you go live, and slowly increase as you get comfortable. 

[Rachel 1]

That's exactly it, Skye. So far, it seems to work better for me at this time to invest in a small account with a structure that includes the use of a sim vs. purchasing the use of the simulator then investing in an account. 

I am still very happy to have started with the DAS simulator that our group offers. There are no commitments or strings attached! And, there was no risk of accidentally trading live.